Now that U.S. soldiers are waging war against the government of Iraq, we must provide them the means and support to finish their work. The majority of Americans supported the war prior to the beginning of the conflict and certainly support the troops still. But we are entirely alone.

The populace of no other nation supported the war prior to the beginning of the conflict. On April 2, just 54 percent of Britons supported involvement in the war — a figure that was around 30 percent before the conflict began. Even the people of our strongest allies, people who we have liberated in the past and protected from invasion, the people of countries such as Germany and Australia, are against us.

Despite an enormous majority of the world population contending that this war is wrong, 200 million Americans continue to believe that they somehow have a moral, ethical and political superiority in matters of life, death and war than billions of other rational people who completely disagree. In fact, it is the American public, not the billions who disagree with us, that is out of touch with reality. The Los Angeles Times reports that three-fifths of Americans believe that Saddam is responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. The Times, an independent, non-biased news source, also states that “no” evidence of this responsibility exists.

The American public did not support attacking nations without provocation before Bush told us it was necessary. Now, after Bush’s indoctrination has taken hold, more than half of Americans believe that we should attack Iran if they continue to develop nuclear weapons. North Korea is already developing nuclear weapons. Should we attack them also?

Bush’s policies of preemptive attack dictate that we do. He said in a recent radio address that “Free nations will not sit and wait, leaving enemies to plot another Sept. 11 — this time perhaps, with chemical, biological or nuclear terror.” I wonder if America is ready to accept the thousands of American military deaths, perhaps hundreds of thousands of civilian/military deaths in North Korea and Iran, trillions of dollars in economic repercussions and complete political isolation, expressed as a greater level of hatred than has already taken root, from the rest of the world.

Bush has artificially created a war fever in the American public that is totally unprecedented in history.

Unfortunately for the future of our country and the world, this fever will do nothing to stop the terrorism that generated it, it will only cause more hatred and terrorism against America than it eliminates. This disastrous belief that America has a right to attack nations that have not attacked us borders on idiocy. What right do we have to tell the world not to attack us before we attack them?

Tony Borich

Freshman

Community & Regional Planning

Environmental Studies